Fine-Tuning a Motion Tween

Making a Motion Tween is pretty easy after you know how. Making it look good is another matter. There are a few basic techniques to fine-tune your Motion Tween that will make the results more natural and believable. Although we'll see even more techniques later (in Hour 21, “Advanced Animation Techniques”), for now we'll cover concepts that specifically apply to a Motion Tween.

Multiple Keyframes

Every Motion Tween involves just two keyframes. In the first, you tell Flash how to tween to the next keyframe. But suppose you want a symbol to move up and then back down. You need three keyframes: one in the initial location, another in the upper location, and a third in the end location. In fact, you'll have only two tweens: one from the first keyframe to the second keyframe, and one from the second keyframe to the third keyframe. It will make the process easier if you can sort things out this simply.